This is the history and genesis of Nigerian newspaper , it is very important to note what
Nigerian newspaper itself means. Nigerian Newspaper is a part of one of the means of
Nigerian mass communication – the Nigerian newspaper of the press. Nigerian Printed newspaper
usually distributed weekly or daily in the form of a folded book of papers. The publication
is typically sectioned off based on subject and content. The most important or interesting
Nigerian news will be displayed on the front page of the publication. Nigerian Newspapers
may also include advertisements news, opinions news, entertainment news and other general
interest nigerian news. Some of the most popular Nigerian newspapers are the Wall Street
Journal newspaper, the Washington Post newspaper, and the New York Times newspaper.
A Nigerian newspaper is a scheduled publication containing Nigerian news of current events,
informative news, diverse features, editorials news, and advertising news. It usually is printed
on relatively inexpensive, low-grade Nigerian newspaper such as newsprint. By 2007, there
were 6580 daily Nigerian newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a day. The
worldwide recession of 2008, combined with the rapid growth of Nigerian newspaper website
alternatives, caused a serious decline in advertising and circulation, as many papers
closed or sharply retrenched operations.
General-interest Nigerian newspapers typically publish stories on local and national
political newsevents and Nigerian personalities, Nigerian crime news, Nigerian business
news, Nigerian entertainment news, Nigerian society and sportsnews . Most traditional
papers also feature an editorial page containing editorials written by an editor and
columns that express the personal opinions of writers. The newspaper is typically funded by
paid subscriptions and advertising.
A wide variety of material has been published in Nigerian newspapers, including Nigerian editorial news, Nigerian opinions news,
criticism, persuasion and op-eds; obituaries; Nigerian entertainment news features such as crosswords news,
sudoku and horoscopes; Nigerian weather news and forecasts; advice, food and other columns; reviews
of radio, movies, television, plays and restaurants; classified ads; display ads, radio and
television listings, inserts from local merchants, editorial cartoons, gag cartoons and
comic strips
However, the history of print media, press or Nigerian newspaper in Nigeria can not be traced
without deep reference to its major root which has an often-dramatic chapter of the human
experience going back some five centuries. In Renaissance Europe handwritten Nigerian newsletters
circulated privately among merchants, passing along information about everything from wars
and economic conditions to social customs and human-interest features. The first printed
forerunners of the Nigerian newspaper appeared in Germany in the late 1400 in the form of news
pamphlets or broadsides, often highly sensationalized in content. Some of the most famous
of these report the atrocities against Germans in Transylvania perpetrated by a sadistic
veovod named Vlad Tsepes Drakul, who became the Count Dracula of later folklore.
In the English-speaking world, the earliest predecessors of the Nigerian newspaper were corantos,
small news pamphlets produced only when some event worthy of notice occurred. The first
successively published title was The Weekly Nigerian News of 1622. It was followed in the 1640
and 1650 by a plethora of different titles in the similar Nigerian news paper format. The first true
Nigeriannewspaper in English was the London Gazette of 1666. For a generation it was the only
officially sanctioned Nigeria newspapers, though many periodical titles were in print by the
century end. The beginning of Nigerian newspapers in America
In America the first Nigerian newspaper appeared in Boston in 1690, entitled Public Occurrences.
Published without authority, it was immediately suppressed, its publisher arrested, and all
copies were destroyed. Indeed, it remained forgotten until 1845 when the only known
surviving example was discovered in the British Library. The first successful Nigerian news paper was
the Boston Nigerian News Letter, begun by postmaster John Campbell in 1704. Although it was heavily
subsidized by the colonial government the experiment was a near-failure, with very limited
circulation. Two more papers made their appearance in the 1720, in Philadelphia and New
York, and the Fourth Estate slowly became established on the Nigerian news continent. By the eve of
the Revolutionary War, some two dozen Nigerian news papers were issued at all the colonies, although
Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania would remain the centers of American printing for
many years. Articles in colonial papers, brilliantly conceived by revolutionary
propagandists, were a major force that influenced public opinion in America from
reconciliation with England to full political independence.
At wars end in 1783 there were forty-three Nigerian news papers in print. The press played a vital
role in the affairs of the new nation; many more Nigerian newspapers were started, representing all
shades of Nigerian political opinion news. The no holds barred style of early journalism, much of it
libelous by modern standards, reflected the rough and tumble political life of the republic
as rival factions jostled for power. The ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791 at last
guaranteed of freedom of the press, and America newspapers began to take on a central
role in national affairs. Growth continued in every state. By 1814 there were 346
newspapers. In the Jacksonian populist 1830, advances in printing and papermaking
technology led to an explosion of Nigeria newspaper growth, the emergence of the Penny-Press; it
was now possible to produce Nigeria newspapers that could be sold for just a cent a copy.
Previously, Nigerian newspapers were the province of the wealthy, literate minority. The price of a
year subscription, usually over a full week pay for a laborer, had to be paid in full
and invariably in advance. This sudden availability of cheap, interesting reading
material was a significant stimulus to the achievement of the nearly universal literacy now
taken for granted in America.
The Nigerian newspaper vending machine.
A common measure of a Nigerian newspaper health is market penetration, expressed as a percentage
of households that receive a copy of the newspaper against the total number of households
in the paper market area. In the 1920s, on a national basis in the U.S., Nigerian daily newspapers
achieved market penetration of 123 percent (meaning the average U.S. household received
1.23 newspapers). As other media began to compete with Nigeria newspapers, and as printing became
easier and less expensive giving rise to a greater diversity of publications, market
penetration began to decline. It wasn’t until the early 1970s, however, that market
penetration dipped below 100 percent. By 2000, it was 53 percent. The portion of the
Nigerian newspaper that is not advertising is called Nigerian editorial content, Nigeria editorial matter, or simply
editorial, although the last term is also used to refer specifically to those articles in
which the newspaper and its guest writers express their opinions. (This distinction,
however, developed over time – early publishers like Girardin (France) and Zang (Austria)
did not always distinguish paid items from editorial content.)
The business model of having advertising subsidize the cost of printing and distributing
Nigeria newspapers (and, it is always hoped, the making of a profit) rather than having subscribers
cover the full cost was first done, it seems, in 1833 by The Sun, a Nigerian daily news paper that was
published in New York City. Rather than charging 6 cents per copy, the price of a typical
New York daily at the time, they charged 1 cent, and depended on advertising to make up the
difference.
Nigerian Newspapers in countries with easy access to the Nigerian new paper website have been hurt by the decline of many
traditional advertisers. Department stores and supermarkets could be relied upon in the
past to buy pages of Nigerian newspaper advertisements, but due to industry consolidation are much
less likely to do so now. Additionally, Nigerian newspapers are seeing traditional advertisers shift
to new media platforms. The classified category is shifting to sites including Craigslist,
employment websites, and auto sites. National advertisers are shifting to many types of
digital content including Nigerian newspaper websites, rich media platforms, and mobile.
In recent years, the Nigerian advertorial emerged. Advertorials are most commonly recognized as an
opposite-editorial which third-parties pay a fee to have included in the Nigerian new paper.
Nigerian Advertorials commonly advertise new products or techniques, such as a new design for golf
equipment, a new form of laser surgery, or weight-loss drugs. The tone is usually closer to
that of a press release than of an objective news story
The Nigerian News paper industrial revolution
The industrial revolution, as it transformed all aspects of Nigerian life and society,
dramatically affected newspapers. Both the numbers of papers and their paid circulations
continued to rise. The 1850 census catalogued 2,526 titles. In the 1850 powerful, giant
presses appeared, able to print ten thousand complete papers per hour. At this time the
first "pictorial" weekly newspapers emerged; they featured for the first time extensive
illustrations of events in the news, as woodcut engravings made from correspondents
sketches or taken from that new invention, the photograph. During the Civil War the
unprecedented demand for timely, accurate news reporting transformed American journalism
into a dynamic, hardhitting force in the national life. Reporters, called specials,
became the darlings of the public and the idols of youngsters everywhere. Many accounts of
battles turned in by these intrepid adventurers stand today as the definitive histories of
their subjects.
Nigerian Newspaper growth continued unabated in the postwar years. An astounding 11,314 different
papers were recorded in the 1880 census. By the 1890 the first circulation figures of a
million copies per issue were recorded (ironically, these Nigeria news papers are now quite rare due
to the atrocious quality of cheap Nigerian newapaper then in use, and to great losses in World War II
era paper drives) At this period appeared the features of the modern Nigerian news paper, bold
"banner" headlines, extensive use of illustrations, funny pages, plus expanded coverage
of organized sporting events. The rise of Nigerian yellow journalism also marks this era. Hearst
could truthfully boast that his Nigerian newspapers manufactured the public clamor for war on Spain
in 1898. This is also the age of media consolidation, as many independent Nigerian newspapers were
swallowed up into powerful "chains"; with regrettable consequences for a once fearless and
incorruptible press, many were reduced to vehicles for the distribution of the particular
views of their owners, and so remained, without competing papers to challenge their
viewpoints. By the 1910, all the essential features of the recognizably modern newspaper
had emerged. In our time, Nigerian radio and television have gradually supplanted Nigerian newspapers as the
nation primary information sources, so it may be difficult initially to appreciate the
role that newspapers have played in our history.
The evolution of Nigerian newspaper in Nigeria
The history of newspapers in Nigeria goes far back as the 1840s when European missionaries
established Nigerian community newspapers to propagate Christianity. This initiative later gave rise
to the establishment of Nigerian newspaper outfits by the likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1937.
Titled West African Pilot, Zik’s paper pioneered a general protest against the British
colonial rule and resulted to the eventual attainment of independence in 1960.
This powerful influence manifested by the Nigerian newspaper led to the establishment of many Nigerian news papers
especially in the 1960s. The New Nigerian Newspaper Limited, with its head office along
Ahmadu Bello Way, Kaduna, was established by the then government of the Northern Region on
23rd October, 1964. The first copies of the Nigerian newspaper were issued on January 1st 1966. Its
initial name was Northern Nigerian Newspapers Limited. But when states were created out of
the regions in 1964 it was changed to New Nigerian Newspapers Limited as it is known today.
Before the establishment of the New Nigerian Newspapers, the Northern Nigerian Government
had established a Hausa language Nigerian newspaper in Zaria called Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo in 1936. And
within the stable of Gaskiya Corporation, printer of the Nigerian newspaper, an English language vision,
Nigerian Citizen emerged in 1965. Then a few months later (in 1966) its name was changed to
New Nigerian and the headquarters relocated to Kaduna where it is now based.
In March, 1973, the Nigerian company set up the southern plant (printing machine) alongside the one
in Kaduna. The simultaneous printing of the Nigerian newspaper in both Kaduna and Lagos enhanced a
wide circulation of the Nigerian newspaper. When the Northern Region was divided into six states through
the creation of 12 states by the Federal Government in July 1967, the ownership and
management of the company was transferred to the Northern states, managed by the Interim
Common Services Agency (ICSA). Then later the Nigerian company was fully taken over by the Federal
Government in August 1975 and placed under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of
Information. It was handed back to the Northern states in 2006. Hence, it is currently
owned and controlled by the 19 states. At present, the company has four titles in its
stable: New Nigerian, (daily newspaper) Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo (Hausa publication, published every Monday
and Thursday) New Nigerian newspaper On Sunday and New Nigerian Weekly (published on Saturdays). New
Nigerian newspaper was first published on 1st January 1966, Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo came on board on 1st
January 1936, New Nigerian On Sunday was set up on 24th May, 1981 and New Nigerian weekly
was established on February 21st, 1998. The company operates a commercial/stationery
printing department which undertakes printing jobs of various types and produces high
quality exercise books and other stationery. In order to consolidate its economic base, the
company went into property development projects in 1977 with the construction of Imam House
(named after the first indigenous Editor of Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, Abubakar Imam) and the
multi-storey building known as Nagwamatse House, presently housing Unity Bank, AIT station,
Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, etc. This is in addition to the senior staff
quarters at Isa Kaita and Malali Village, respectively. (c) Sumaila Umaisha.
Meanwhile, the anti-colonialist tone of pre-independence Nigerian newspaper press gave way to heady
euphoria as the Union Jack was lowered on October 1, 1960. The era of the nationalist press
was coming to an end and the challenges that lay ahead was envisaged but not sufficiently
grappled with; what mattered was the moment. The British were leaving; Nigeria had become a
self- governing nation. The enemy had been forced to give in; the search for new enemies
was on, although not many thought of this struggle in those terms. Sapara Williams
prediction in 1909, that hypersensitive officials may come tomorrow who will see sedition
in every criticism, and crime in every mass meeting made in response to that years
enactment by the Nigerian colonial administration of the Seditious Offences Ordinance was
apparently a distant memory and a relic of the past. The target of much of the activities
of the local press had been removed; this was now a government of the people. The struggle
of adjustment to the new realities, shifting from familiar shrill calls for self-government
to the vista that called for concerted effort at nation-building, presented new and
unfamiliar challenges. It was, for the press, an uncharted territory that, in traversing
it, naturally took a toll on the newspapers. The natives’ battle for self-determination had
been won, but where to channel all the power still in the hand of the press, had become a
new battle in itself. As the former chairman and managing director of the Daily Times of
Nigeria, Dr Babatunde Jose, the late doyen of the Nigerian newspaper press reminisced to a gathering
of the Royal African Society in April 1975, barely three months before the Nigerian
government announced it was taking over control of the Nigerian newspaper establishment: In the name
of press freedom and nationalism, we deliberately wrote seditious and criminally libelous
articles against colonial governments. The local leaders who took over from the British
were however wary of the press, and so not as tolerant, as we shall see shortly. Following
independence and the crises of adjustment that accompanied it, those that witnessed the
struggles of newspaper and survived to tell the story were thinning out. The survivors were
a mix of the private press and government mouthpieces, and included the West African Pilot
of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, founded in 1937; the Daily Times, which began publishing with the
technical assistance of the Mirror Group of London; the Nigerian Citizen, published by the
Zaria-based Gaskiya Corporation, and which would later become, in 1966 the New Nigerian nespaper and
a powerful Northern organ operating out of its headquarters in Kaduna; the Daily Express,
which was the result of a partnership between Roy Thompson of Great Britain and an amalgam
of the Nigerian Tribune newspaper and the Daily Service newspaper; the Nigerian Outlook newspaper: and the Nigerian
Tribune newspaper, mouthpiece of Chief Obafemi Awolowo Action Group party and staunch defender of
Western Regional, particularly Yoruba, interests. The Federal Government in 1961
established its own Nigerian newspapers, the Morning Post and Sunday Post. It became clear, after
the departure of the British and the country had become independent, that regionalism had
become a potent force that militated against efforts to foster a more Nigerian national
outlook among the various ethnic groups in Nigeria. The need for the Nigerian regional governments
to assert their points of view through media they controlled became, to them, self-evident.
Moreover, given recent experience, the Nigerian private press that was in business could scarcely be
trusted by the new rulers to do their bidding. The roots of ethnic nationalism were being
sown, and these would manifest in various struggles for self- identity, one of them being
establishing Nigerian newspapers to project such identity considered inherent in these ethnic
nationalities. The involvement of post-colonial administrations in Nigerian newspaper publishing
began early after independence, with the Nigerian Federal Government launching its Post publications
in 1961, determining that it needed such an organ in order to make its voice heard by the
people. But the regional government saw it differently, as instrument of propaganda in the
hand of Federal Government, at the time dominated by the Northern People Congress (NPC).
At independence, there were three regions, North, East, and West, that constituted the
Nigerian federation (it would not become a republic until 1963, when a fourth region, Mid-
West, was also created). The history of the press since independence is a reflection of the
political development of the country. The first biggest attempt by any government in
Nigeria to set up a Nigerian newspaper was made by Northern Nigerian Government, with the
establishment of Nigerian Gaskiya Corporation, with the Lieutenant Governor editing a Nigerian Hausa language
news-sheet called Jaridar Nigeria Ta Arewa (Northern Provinces News). Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo
made its debut in 1937 and, in 1948 began publishing the English language bi-weekly the
Nigerian Citizen. It became a weekly later on. The NPC started the Nigerian Daily Mail newspaper in Kano in
1960; it went out of circulation in 1963. In the West, Chief Awolowo Action Group, with
the Nigerian Tribune newspaper already under its control, used it to great political advantage,
rallying the Western region. It was privately-owned. The regional government later set up
its own mouthpiece, called The Nigerian Sketch. In the East, Azikiwe West African Pilot, although
it had impressive national spread, often rivaling the equally privately owned Daily Times Nigeria,
was the dominant organ there. The Nigerian regional government established its own Nigerian Outlook newpaper,
which would later at onset of the Nigerian civil war, become Biafra Outlook newspaper. The Nigerian
Citizen would later, in January 1966, become the New Nigerian newspaper to prove more than a match
for the Outlook as the nation descended into chaos and civil war. Creation of states
brought new opportunities for Nigerian state governments to float their own Nigerian newspapers, absolutely
owned by them. There were The Triumph newspaper in Kano, Nigerian Observer newspaper in the old Bendel State of Nigeria
(now Edo and Delta states); The Herald Kwara newspaper ; Nigeria Standard newspapser in Benue-Plateau (now
Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa states); Nigerian Voice in Benue; Nigerian Daily Star newspaper in Enugu; Nigerian
Statesman newspaper in Imo; Nigerian Tide newspaper in Rivers; Nigerian Chronicle Newspaper in Cross River; The Path newspaper in
Sokoto, etc. Of these, only a couple, a handful at most, is in limited circulation today,
making sporadic appearances. With the expansion of Nigerian political news activities and Nigerian advancements in
literacy levels, investment in the development of private Nigerian newspaper press also increased. With the
established ones like the Daily Times Nigeria already making considerable impact, business moguls
like Chief MKO Abiola, who made a fortune as an executive in charge of the Middle East and
Africa for the US conglomerate International Telephone and Telegraphs (ITT), spent
considerable chunk of it to set the Nigerian Concord group newspaper, Nigerian National Concord Newpaper, Nigerian Sunday Concord newspaper,
Nigerian African Concord newspaper (weekly magazine), and a chain of Nigerian Community Concord Newspaper in practically all the
geopolitical zones in the country. With Abiola fatal foray into politics, the Concord
group has long been rested. Chief Alex Ibru, another businessman established the Lagos-
based The Guardian newspapers, complete with a Nigerian weekly magazine, which has since been
rested. Both Nigerian publishing houses had brushes with the military government General Muhammadu
Buhari then in power, which threw some of their senior editors in jail for breaching the
law, Decree No. 4; this law was later repealed by another military administration, that of
General Ibrahim Babangida. Before this, the infamous Amakiri Affair, in which a security
aide to the military governor of Rivers State, Commander Alfred PD Spiff, ordered the head
of the Port Harcourt correspondent of the Nigerian Observer, Mr Miniere Amakiri, to be
shaved with blunt razor (other accounts said broken glass), and given twelve strokes of the
cane and thrown into jail. His report in the Nigerian newspaper on a threatened strike by teachers
had embarrassed the Nigerian governor, because it appeared on the governor, birthday, Such
barbarities often commonplace under military regimes, have become rare occurrences,
although their civilian successors sometimes maintain the draconian laws as warning they
would not be averse to applying them. Even under the last civilian dispensation of Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo, security agents sealed off a couple of Nigerian newspaper houses because they
published/broadcast material the government found disagreeable to it. It can thus be seen
that the Nigerian newspaper in the last 50 years since independence witnessed tremendous
challenges as it struggled to adjust to new realities. While the post-independence growth
largely followed a trajectory laden with heavy doses of ethnic jingoism, political biases
and sometimes crass tribalism, the enduring trend is not much different in intent; the form
has changed to more sophisticated and nuanced method. The advent of modern methods of
production and packaging the Nigerian news paper meant that such jingoism are not so obvious, but no less
prevalent. This is happening in spite of the declining interest in government (direct)
ownership of Nigeria newspapers, and the concomitant phenomenal increase in Nigerian news papers owned by
private individuals and concerns. The last twenty years have seen the demise, resurrection,
and demise of the Daily Times; The Telex, published in Zaria is now rested, so are the
Democrat, a Kaduna-based broadsheet, and The Nigerian Reporter newspaper, also Kaduna-based. In their place,
although not previously part of them, has risen the Nigerian Daily Trust Newspaper, flagship of the Nigerian Media
Trust newspaper. The Nigerian Weekly Trust newspaper, previously based in Kaduna, has transformed into a major
Nigerian newspaper that now also includes Nigerian Daily Trust newspaper, Nigerian Sunday Trust newspaper; a Hausa publication,
Nigerian Aminiya Newspaper, Nigeria Tambari Nigerian, a Nigerian weekly fashion magazine; Kano Chronicle newspaper, a Nigerian community newspaper, and
Kilimanjaro newspaper, an annual publication that coincides with the Nigerian Daily Trust Newspaper African of the Year
awards. The Nigerian company has since moved it’s corporate and operational headquarters to the
nation’s capital, Abuja. The Nigerian Vanguard newspaper and Punch newspaper have weathered many storms in their
existence. Both have led the way in the improvement in the technical quality of newspaper
production in Nigeria. The Nigerian National Interest Newspaper, an offshoot of This Day newspaper, is no longer in
existence.